TWO DEFENDANTS PLEAD GUILTY IN COCA-COLA TRADE SECRETS CASE

ATLANTA -- Ibrahim Dimson, 30, of Bronx, N.Y., and Edmund Duhaney, 43, of Decatur, Ga., pleaded guilty today in federal district court to a charge of conspiring with each other and another defendant, Joya Williams, to steal and sell The Coca-Cola Company's trade secrets, U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias of the Northern District of Georgia announced today.

"Economic espionage should be treated very seriously," stated U.S. Attorney Nahmias. "Maintaining the incentives to create new and innovative products and allowing the innovators to reap the benefits of their inventions are critical to the growth of our economy. Those who try to cheat by taking advantage of others' hard work and creativity will face prosecution and prison."

According to U.S. Attorney Nahmias and the information presented in court, on May 19, 2006, PepsiCo provided to The Coca-Cola Company's headquarters in Atlanta a copy of a letter mailed to PepsiCo in Purchase, N.Y., in an official Coca-Cola business envelope. The letter, postmarked from the Bronx, N.Y., was from an individual identifying himself as "Dirk," who claimed to be employed at a high level with Coca-Cola and offered "very detailed and confidential information." Coca-Cola immediately contacted the FBI and an undercover FBI investigation began. FBI investigation determined that "Dirk" was defendant Dimson.

Phone records and further investigation showed the alleged source of the information was Joya Williams, an Executive Administrative Assistant at Coca-Cola in Atlanta, who had access to some of the information and materials described by "Dirk." As the investigation progressed, "Dirk" provided to a FBI undercover agent 14 pages of Coca-Cola documents named "Classified - Confidential" and "CLASSIFIED - Highly Restricted," and the company confirmed that these documents were valid, highly confidential and considered highly classified proprietary information--trade secrets. Almost immediately, "Dirk" requested $10,000 for the documents sent as proof, emailing, in part, "I must see some type of seriousness on there [sic] part, if I'm to maintain the faith to continue with you guys, or if I need to look towards another entity that will be interested in a relationship with me. I have the capability of obtaining information per request. I have information that's all Classified and extremely confidential, that only a handful of the top execs at my company have seen. I can even provide actual products and packaging of certain products, that no eye has seen, outside of maybe 5 top execs. I need to know today, if I have a serious partner or not. If the good faith moneys is in my account by Monday, that will be an indication of your seriousness."

Later "Dirk" produced other documents that Coca-Cola confirmed were valid trade secrets of Coca-Cola and highly confidential, and he was to receive $5,000 for the documents as good faith money for additional purchases. "Dirk" also agreed to an amount of $75,000 for the purchase of a highly confidential product sample from a new Coca-Cola project.

On June 16, 2006, a FBI undercover agent met with Dimson ("Dirk") at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, with "Dirk" providing a brown Armani Exchange bag containing one manila envelope with documents marked "highly confidential" and one glass bottle with a white label containing a liquid product sample. The undercover agent paid "Dirk" $30,000 in $100 and $50 bills of U.S. currency contained within a yellow Girl Scout cookie box with the agreement that after successful testing of the product sample, an additional $45,000 would be paid. After leaving, Dimson met in a rental car with Duhaney and they drove to Duhaney's home in Decatur. Call records showed that Duhaney was in contact with Dimson and Williams on that day.

On June 27, 2006, an undercover FBI agent offered to buy the remaining trade secret items for $1.5 million from "Dirk." The same day a bank account was opened under the names of Duhaney and Dimson ("Dirk"), and the address used on the account was that of Duhaney's Decatur residence. The purpose of the account was to facilitate the transfer of the $1.5 million. Dimson, Duhaney and Williams were arrested in Atlanta on the day the $1.5 million deal was to take place.

The defendants were indicted in July of 2006 on one count of conspiring to steal and to sell trade secrets. Dimson and Duhaney pleaded guilty today to that charge. Each could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Defendant Joya Williams has entered a plea of not guilty and is awaiting trial, which is currently set to begin on Nov. 13, 2006. She has filed a motion to continue the trial, but the court has yet to rule on that motion.

Sentencing for Dimson and Duhaney is scheduled for Jan. 29, 2007, before Senior U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester. This case is being investigated by special agents of the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys BJay Pak and Randy S. Chartash are prosecuting the case.